Gary Oldman has said the real star of the Harry Potter movies was the rat Scabbers, and that he is a bit jealous of the rodent. The recently knighted actor appeared as Sirius Black in the beloved movie series but felt he was upstaged by Scabbers, especially as the animal had negotiated a better contract deal than him.
Union breaks for the rat
Oldman recalled: “I had a particular scene with a rat called Scabbers who has to have a break every 15 minutes. Someone would come in and grab the rat and take him off. 'I say, why do we keep stopping?’ And they said, 'well, Scabbers, he gets a union break, cos he gets stressed out. So he has to have a break every 15 minutes.’
“I said, 'a break every 15 minutes? Who's his agent?’ What a fantastic deal this rat's on.”
Oldman on his own performances
Oldman was not a fan of his performances in the JK Rowling series: “I think my work is mediocre in it. No, I do ... Maybe if I had read the books like Alan [Rickman], if I had got ahead of the curve, if I had known [what was] coming, I honestly think I would have played it differently.”
He added: “It's like anything, if I sat and watched myself in something and said, 'My god, I'm amazing,' that would be a very sad day, because you want to make the next thing better.”
Surprises without reading the books
At least not reading the books gave Oldman some surprises, like him not knowing that Sirius Black would die. He said: “We were all taking bets, you know. 'It's [Rubeus] Hagrid,' and I was there going, 'No, no, no, maybe it's Ron [Weasley].' And then you kind of open the script and you go, 'It's me. I'm out of here'.”
Oldman is currently seen in Slow Horses on Apple TV.
